Jews for Jesus

Moishe Rosen officially founded Jews for Jesus in September of 1973. If you look around the site, (www.jewsforjesus.org), it's easy to read between the lines and see exactly what TAFKAH is saying. The closest thing I could find, other then his name being Rosen, that Moishe was in fact Jewish was this "In 1954, about a year after my Jewish wife Ceil and I became believers in Jesus, I felt God's call to minister to my Jewish people." He never states that he was jewish, though im not saying he wasn't.

Jews for Jesus calls itself a mission and seems more like a crusade against jews as opposed to a bunch of Jews that believe in Christ. They have stories of Jews that have overcome their heretic faith and embraced Jesus. They also talk about the history of Jews as if they just missed the boat when Jesus was around but they still have a chance. Another clue that this is just Christians converting Jews is the total lack of any Hebrew, except the word Y'shua which is hebrew for Jesus, probably because they don't know hebrew, probably because they're Christian. They have a lame looking forest green Star of David everywhere though and one picture of an someone who is an orthodox jew. Everything else is a white bread Scandinavian as can be.

"We recognize the value of traditional Jewish literature but only where it is supported by or conformable to the Word of God. We regard it as in no way binding upon life or faith"

The whole thing sort of smacks of "embrace and extend," ala Microsoft.

Yeah, check it out:

W3C / UIUC / IANA: Hey! We've got this cool thing called the web... anybody who wants to play can participate in the standards process!
Microsoft: Hm... Oh, we certainly agree... Let's embrace those RFCs... we'll just add one leeeeeetle thing... Oh, does that makes everything break? Oh, you mean people who use our technology can't use other people's technology? What a shame... What a shame... Heheh.

Not to kill an analogy, but saying "proprietary" versus "open" is just as different as saying "Jewish" versus "Christian." To say that being a Jew for Jesus is to be a complete Jew is to be, ultimately, deceptive; fundamental portions of the Jewish faith point away from things like the Holy Trinity; a Messianic era in which wars are fought; etc.

Sure, I could tell you that my bicycle's final evolutionary step would ultimately to be a motorcycle, but if I take off the spoked wheels, put on a motor, discard the frame, get a heavier one, replace the brakes... it's no longer a bicycle, it's a motorcycle.

Similarly, when you start practicing Christianity, you're no longer practicing Judaism.

I'm not saying that Christianity is worse or better than Judaism; just that they're very different faiths. One is not the logical conclusion of the other; to say so is to be disrepectful.

Gadzooks! (Yes, I understand the irony.) Look how I've run on!

Ok, I go away and shut up now. :\

My rabbi brought in a Jew for Jesus to speak in my religious school class once. He started his speech with a statement somewhere along the lines of

"I'm a Jew, but I also happen to believe in Jesus."

He went on to talk about how he's still Jewish even though he believes that the Messiah has already come to Earth in the form of Jesus Christ. He still participated in all Jewish holidays, prayed in Hebrew, wore a tallis and yarmulke to shul, and so on. Now, the question that this raised, at least in my mind, is "What's the difference between a Jew who believes in Jesus and a Christian?"

Jesus' first followers were a group of Jews who ended up believing that their spiritual leader was the Messiah. The first Christians were, um, Jews for Jesus.

You're a Jew for Jesus? You're not a Jew anymore. You're just practicing Christianity the way it was meant to be practiced at its inception.

Begin rant.....

In response to Judeoslav's write-up, among others, I would first like to say that I'm Jewish as well, and while Jews for Jesus may seem (and probably is) pretty bad, I think that it's just as bad to tell them that they're not Jewish. As long as they don't force people to join them, there's really nothing anybody should or could do. You bring to light one of the many current problems with Judaism as a whole today -the vicious infighting. While I do agree with you on some levels, I simply do not agree that anyone can tell these people whether they are or are not Jewish, and here's why:

Judaism has been through a lot. Slavery, mass murder, exiles, the whole nine yards. But we've survived. We've survived by sticking together. Now though, society is beginning to change. While prejudice against one another is far from over, it's been diminishing for a long while. However, something has happened to the Jewish faith, especially here in America. Now that many of the crises are over, the many factions of Judaism seem to be eyeing each for the first time. And not liking what they see. It seems that everywhere you go, there's tensions between the Orthodox and Reforms, the Conservatives and the Reconstructionists, basically between every faction of Judaism.

And it's tearing us apart! All this finger pointing, is excuse the language, horsecrap! Everyone is sending a message to everyone else: you're not Jewish enough for me And that really hurts. Because it's not about the group as a whole. It's about the individual. That's what religion is all about - how it works for the individual. I need to repeat that again, because people don't seem to understand that these days: Religion is about the individual! It's just despicable that person A tells person B that they can't be Jewish, Catholic, Wiccan, whatever, because they don't meet person A's standards. Well, I'm sorry, but that's not person A's decision.

Religion cannot be defined by the whole - it's up to each one of us to determine what religion means to us. So telling the Jews for Jesus they're not Jewish because they don't meet your standards is every bit as bad as the Hasidic (I hope I spelled that right) movement saying that everyone else isn't Jewish because they don't meet their standards. I realize that the Jews for Jesus may not meet yours, or mine, or any other Jew's standards for what is Jewish. But they meet their own. And that's really all that matters. They may try to convert all sorts of people, but as long as they're not hurting anyone in the process, and people still go over ot the so-called dark side out of their own free will they should be allowed to call themselves what the want to call themselves.

......end of rant

The original concept dates back to the early days of Christianity. The original Christians were all Jews, but there were some who wanted to, even felt they had to, spread the word to others. Others felt that it was wrong to include Gentiles, non-Jews, as only the Jews were "God's chosen people." Legend, backed up by the Epistles in the New Testament, says that this debate dates back to Saints Peter and Paul.

Those who didn't want to preach to the Gentiles intended to retain all Jewish customs and beliefs, amended only by the teachings of Jesus. It was more of a Revival of Judaism than a new religion. They maintained a society for a while, but ultimately they couldn't maintain their numbers, given that both Jews and Christians were being persecuted at the time. Over the ages, groups of Jews who converted to Christianity have rekindled the idea several times, but all - except for the current group - have died out.

Those who wished to spread their religion to others were forced to assimilate others' beliefs in order to draw converts. Eventually most Jewish customs were abandoned. This approach ultimately led to a much larger population base, as well as the ability to convert key officials (e.g. Constantine). Thus these are the Christians we know today.